Canada is on the cusp of a bioeconomic revolution. With its foundation of expansive forests and agricultural land, Canada is poised to unlock the value of its bio-based resources potential.

The Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) has a big mandate.

With increasing urbanization comes an increased tax on our environment and its ability to sustain us.

There are two good reasons why the world should be focused on reducing carbon footprint. The first, obviously, is to slow the effects of global warming and the drastic consequences it has for the planet’s future. The second reason, sometimes forgotten or ignored, is that non-renewable or fossil resources will run out, possibly as soon as 2060. 

The crash earlier this year of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max that took the lives of all passengers and crew aboard appears to have been caused by the combination of an angle-of-attack sensor that was sending an incorrect signal and control software that reacted to this signal, not allowing the pilot to override it.

A sign at my local courier office seems to claim that there is a shortage of robots to replace humans. In fact, the situation is the reverse. Currently in North America, in many industries, there is a shortage of humans to carry out jobs that cannot be automated.

Lignin is gaining an ever increasing interest from researchers as well as from forest, plastic and energy industries. Having been mainly regarded and used as an energy source by the pulp and paper industry in the past, it is now also seen as a renewable raw material with great potential for an array of products replacing those fossil-based.

Nanocellulose is perhaps not on everyone’s lips but is a widely spread buzz word within our industry. A “googling” on the word nanocellulose while writing this article resulted after a search time of 0.45 seconds in some 701,000 hits. So the topic is obviously a hot one.

The pulp and paper industry is of great importance to the Finnish economy and accounts for more than 20 % of the country’s export value. In addition to that Finland has well-known consultant companies and a substantial mechanical industry producing equipment and services for the pulp and paper industry worldwide.

Kruger uses the best technology to produce high-end tissue

If you work in the pulp and paper industry, chances are you've come across the term circular economy, which has been creating a lot of hype as of late.

Last May 30 was a bright sunny day, as German papermaker ProGroup decided to pay a visit to its papermachine clothing supplier, Cristini, in Lachute, QC.

In my last blog, I emphasized that Green Chemistry Principles provide useful, actionable ways to drive innovation strategies and accelerate transformation in the pulp and paper (P&P) industry. Here, I will focus on a facilitating technology in the development and implementation of biomolecules, biomaterials, and bioproducts from biorefinery: molecular modeling (MM).

Increased level of pollution worldwide (soil, air and water) calls for urgent action and scalable solutions.

The Kraft pulping process, patented in 1879 and implemented in 1890, has shown resilience for more than 100 years, as it provides higher pulp strength and allows for about 98% of chemicals recovery cycle and energy efficiency.

In 2018, FPInnovations set up the FPInnovations Training and Research Support Fund at Université Laval’s Faculty of Forestry, Geography and Geomatics.

Machine operators have a huge impact on fuel efficiency and productivity. The difference in productivity between the worst and best operators can be as much as 30%, while proper maintenance of a machine can result in significant fuel savings. To help its members increase their productivity, FPInnovations offers Smart Operator for Forestry workshops across Canada.

Scientists in FPInnovations’ wildfire operations research and fibre-supply are combining their expertise in a joint research project with the city of Quesnel, B.C., funded in part by the Forest Enhancement Society of British Columbia, to better understand how harvesting techniques can reduce hazardous vegetative fuel to lower the threat of catastrophic wildfires near urban areas while preserving a forest’s ecosystem.

The recovery rate of Ontario’s residential Blue Box system has slipped again, to its lowest level since 2005. According to Stewardship Ontario, the 2018 recovery rate was 60.2%, just barely above the mandated provincial target.

Vancouver-based environmental group, Canopy, has launched a global campaign against paper packaging, claiming that three billion trees “disappear into packaging’’ every year leaving “a trail of deforestation, degraded forest systems, threatened species, and an increasingly volatile climate.”

There’s no question that deforestation is a serious global issue with climate change consequences. The massive fires in the Amazon and Indonesia are just the most recent examples.

Pulpmills in Brazil had some of the lowest wood fiber costs in the world in the 2Q/19, according to the WRQ. Over the past three years Eucalyptus pulplog prices have fallen while the global Hardwood Fiber Price Index (HFPI) has trended upward to reach its highest level in four years.

Costs for sawlogs declined in most major regions around the world in the first half of 2019. However, lumber prices have fallen faster in key markets resulting in lower profits for sawmills, particularly in British Columbia, the US South and Eastern Russia, according to the Wood Resource Quarterly.

Many pellet manufacturers in North America have had to increase the usage of logs for their feedstock in 2019 because of reduced availability of lower-cost sawmill residues. This has resulted in higher total wood fiber costs and increases in the pellet feedstock price indices for both Canada and the US in the 1H/19, according to NAWFR.

Forestry has long been foundational in the history, economy, and culture of Canada. More recently, it has figured prominently in what is fast becoming a global “cri de coeur” for environmental leadership and action on climate change.

Canada is a forest nation! With approximately 40% of our total area covered with forests or other wooded land, our forests play a vitally important role in supporting healthy communities.

March 21 is International Day of Forests, as declared by the United Nations. It is a time for us to celebrate our forestry families, forestry communities, and our country’s world-leading approach to how we manage our forests – one of our country’s most important and renewable resources.

Introduction

As early as 2016, studies were introduced that showed numerous process control benefits that can be realized on paper machines equipped with the EasyScan traversing permeability, water content, and temperature measurement capabilities.

Introduction

In the day-to-day operation of paper machines, little thought is typically applied to carrier rope runs until something changes that affects downtime related to sheet transfers and/or rope replacement.

INTRODUCTION

Capabilities now exist that enable paper, board, and tissue makers to scan the moisture level, permeability, and temperature of their felts without having to go onto the machine.

FPInnovations held the world's first platooning tests on forestry roads in Rivière-aux-Rats, near La Tuque, QC, last week, paving the way towards the use of autonomous vehicles.

The installation of a new turbine generator isn't expected to just generate new revenue for Domtar's Windsor, QC facility, it will also produce18 MW of electricity, optimize the mill's steam, all the while ensuring operational flexibility.

Held at FPInnovations headquarters in Pointe-Claire, Quebec, the 2018 edition of the Pulp, Paper and Bioproducts Course provided hands-on training to 45 participants coming from Canada and the United States.

On October 24, Kruger hosted nearly 100 employees, dignitaries and partners to celebrate the end of a project that saw a complete rebuild of a paper machine at its Trois-Rivières, QC, facility.

Cristini, a manufacturer of carrier rope, threading systems and spiral fabrics for filtration and paper machine dryer sections, recently celebrated its 20th anniversary in business in Lachute, QC.

A large-scale pilot plant at Resolute’s Thunder Bay mill will further develop FPInnovations’ patented process to produce “2G” sugars and hydrolysis lignin (H-lignin) using mechanical refining, mild chemical treatment and enzymatic hydrolysis.

Some companies have latched on to this visualization technology to make at-the-scene maintenance more time-effective and sure. Integration with the Industrial Internet (IoT) is essential to achieve it's full value potential.

Stora Enso and BillerudKorsnäs announce plans to phase in microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) in paperboard products. Lightweight milk cartons with Stora Enso MFC are already market tested.